Two types of poverty

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:3)

In 'The cost of discipleship', Dietrich Bonhoeffer contrasts two types of poverty and points out that only one glorifies Christ, while the other is a caricature that in truth is of the Antichrist:

Privation is the lot of the disciples in every sphere of their lives. They are the 'poor' tout court (Luke 6:20). They have no security, no possessions to call their own, not even a foot of earth to call their home, no earthly society to claim their absolute allegiance. Nay more, they have no spiritual power, experience or knowledge to afford them consolation or security. For his sake the have lost all. In following him they lost even their own lives, and everything that could make them rich. Now they are poor - so inexperienced, so stupid, that they have no other hope but him who called them. Jesus knew all about others too, the representatives and preachers of the national religion, who enjoy greatness and renown, whose feet are firmly planted on the earth, who are deeply rooted in the culture and piety of the people and moulded by the spirit of the age. Yet it is not they, but the disciples who are called blessed - theirs in the kingdom of heaven ... They have their treasure in secret, they find it on the cross. And they have the promise that they will one day visibly enjoy the glory of the kingdom, which in principle is already realised in the utter poverty of the cross.

This beatitude is poles removed from the caricatures of it which appear in political and social manifestos. The Antichrist also calls the poor blessed, but not for the sake of the cross, which embraces all poverty and transforms it into a source of blessing. He fights the cross with political and sociological ideology. He may call it Christian, but that only makes him a still more dangerous enemy.